Sunday 5th week of Easter / 2021 May 2 @ 9:30 am Mass
[__01__] One year. One year = 365 days, the last time I checked a calendar.
And, in
the Broadway musical show “Rent”, the song “Seasons of Love” had this refrain….
Five hundred twenty five thousand six hundred minutes, how do you measure a
year?
This is how. The year = 525,600 minutes. I will not
sing it for you. You’re welcome.
What were
you and I doing this time last year?
This has
been a frequent conversation and theme on the news especially since the middle
of March as we observed 1 year since the shutdowns of the pandemic, 1 year of
sheltering in place, 1 year of wearing
masks, 1 year of Zoom meetings and conference calls.
How many
of us even knew what a “Zoom” call or “Zoom” meeting was, one year ago?
I thought a
“Zoom” meeting meant it was over really quickly. Better not be late or I will
miss it. Like, …it took – as they say – less than “New York minute.” Click !
[__03__] Is it good news that this experience, the
Zoom, the sheltering in place, slowdowns of which there have been many …have
lasted – endured – for just over a year?
I’d like
to connect this one year to the Gospel Good News.
But, certainly
we could object to the yearlong changes have NOT been good news.
For many
of us, the 365 days + plus and counting have gone on interminably and intolerably
long. The year has been especially
difficult for our friends, relatives, neighbors who work in positions of
hospitality and customer service such as in a restaurant, for an airline, at a
hotel, at an airport.
Many of
those whom we know have suffered great setbacks in income and in employment
because of less travel and people going out less.
I hope and pray that our schoolchildren will
be able to resume a regular in-the-classroom experience soon.
I bring up
this chronology and connection of 365 days or 1 year, because the “New Year’s
Resolution” that is implied in this Sunday’s Gospel of the vine and the
branches.
[__04__] The vine and the branches are a symbol of our
lives. There are branches, and sometimes there is overgrowth or excessive
growth or foliage that sprout up.
Some of
these branches get in the way of our connection to God, or to our understanding
of God’s will in our lives….Some of these branches aid us in our connection –
some hinder us in our connection to love of God and love of neighbor.
Is it the
branch of my VANITY …or my the branch of my desire for CONVENIENCE ..or the
branch of my INSECURITY ABOUT success, etc. Is this disconnecting me…
What else
gets in the way?
[__05__] From time to time, in our lives, we do not
just need to clean the house meaning the tasks of dusting, sweeping, mopping,
vacuuming, laundry, but we also need to consider the more profound and deeper
objective to “clean house.”
The expression
“clean house” means to discard or do away with what is undesirable…or getting
in the way.
[__06__] And,
the vine and the branches gospel is an example of this “cleaning house”.
Jesus does
not use the expression “clean house” exactly but does speak of the branches
needing to be pruned or cut back.
Some of us
might hire a tree service or landscaper to cut back what is overgrown on our
houses or near our houses or we might go out ourselves with the clipping shears
or …. For really big branches and limbs, a chain saw.
From a
natural scientific and the botanical point of view, I read that this is really
necessary how the grapes or the berries grow on a vine.
While the
vineyard may be many years old – in France, in around the Mediterranean and
Middle East, there are vineyards and vines even hundreds of years old, the best
grapes come from 1 year old vines. 1 year = 365 days.
The
vineyard owners, the vineyard workers are required to go out each year and cut
back the branches, so that new stems, new shoots and plants can form and they
can grow on these one-year old branches.
Each year
a pruning process happens.
[__07__] This put a new spin – a new perspective – on
the aging process and getting older to me, reminding me that each year … I am
starting over.
Regarding
the pandemic and 2020, many of us have been saying we should not even have to ‘”count”
last year in the measurement our ages or anniversaries or careers. We should just get a free pass!
But, there
was something that happened in being cut back.
Some of
were invited to a greater appreciation of our lives, of our health, of our
families, a greater appreciation for those who guard and protect our lives, our
physicians, nurses, technicians and maintenance workers at the hospital.
It gave
us, perhaps, a greater appreciation and an invitation to pray when we drive by
a hospital, when we drive by the medical centers of St. Barnabas, Mountainside,
Morristown…
Or any
hospital or nursing home, an invitation to pray for those who are there and who
work there.
A greater
appreciation when we hear an ambulance siren or police siren or fire engine,
and the work that our police officers, firefighters and EMS have done to
protect us.
For the
past year, experiencing this pandemic, this has been an experience of being
both “cut back” and “growing new fruit” …. And “growing new life”
Pope Francis
has said that, in some ways, we may grow closer and better with God, through
the pandemic as we pray and try to serve those who have suffered.
It’s not
easy to be cut back.
Each year, I am called to produce new fruit on a new
branch.
One year.
That’s
pretty young.
We were
cut back one year ago.
We can
bear great fruit.
It’s not
easy to be cut back, but now after a year, can we not rejoice that we are still
connected to Jesus, the vine the trunk of our tree … who helps us to grow.
We are his
branches.
We are
only year old.
365 days and counting. [__fin__]
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